No sooner has one plagiarism row over Dan Brown’s ‘Da Vinci Code’ come to an end, than another looms over the horizon. This time, it is a Russian scientist who is claiming that the author was inspired by him.

As is reported by the AFP news agency, Michail Anikin, who is a specialist on Leonardo da Vinci, maintains that Brown helped himself to one of his central themes. This states that Da Vinci was not only a painter but also a theologian, and his Mona Lisa is no simple portrait but an allegory of the Christian Church. This point of view was put forward by Anikin in 1998 and in 2000 he had published a book about the painter.

The scientist is not only demanding an apology from Brown but also a financial settlement for the ‘moral suffering’ endured. Anikin allegedly wants to make a claim to all the income that Brown has received through his plagiarism. That means that he wants to submit a formal legal complaint should the successful author not fulfill this demand.